1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for mounting functional parts on a closable member of a vehicle, such as an engine hood, back door and the like, the functional parts being associated with the closable member and consisting, for example, of locking device, hinge means, etc.
2. Description of Prior Art
Conventional structure is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, which is to mount functional parts consisting of a hinge device onto a closable member of a vehicle in the form of a back door. The back door 1, for example, comprises a back door panel 30 consisting of a plastics sheet which is molded into shape. The hinge device 2 is mounted at a predetermined location 3, i.e. at the upper rear surface of the back door panel. At this location 3, a channel-shaped reinforcing member 4 is secured to the back door panel 30 by an adhesive layer 5 therebetween. Bolt 6 and nut 7 serve to mount on the reinforcing member 4 a movable hinge bracket 8 of the hinge device 2 which further includes a stationary hinge bracket 9. An outer and an inner roof rail panels 10, 11 are joined together to form a drip portion 12 to whose bottom wall the stationary hinge bracket 9 is mounted by bolt 13 and nut 14. In FIG. 2, there are further shown a roof panel 15, a back window glass 16, a molding 17 along the glass 16, adhesive material 18 for adhering the glass 16 on the panel 30, and a weather strip 19 mounted along the rear edge of the drip portion 12.
A similar conventional structure is shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, which is to mount functional parts consisting of a lock device 2 on the back door 1. In this case, a channel-shaped reinforcing membr 4 is secured to the lower rear surface of the back door panel 30 by an adhesive layer 5, and a latch mechanism 20 forming part of the lock device 2 is secured to the reinforcing member 4 by bolt 6 and nut 7. Corresponding to the latch mechanism 20, a striker 21 is mounted on the upper periphery 23 of an opening for the back door, which is formed in a rear panel 23 of a vehicle body. The back door is further provided with a key cylinder 24 near the latch mechanism.
In the abovementioned conventional structures, even when the desired functional parts 2 are rigidly secured to the reinforcing member 4, the latter is secured to the rear surface 3 of the closable member by the adhesive material 5 only, so that overall supporting rigidity for the functional parts depends solely on the adhesive strength. In other words, the reinforcing member 4 having a small surface area to be applied with adhesive material cannot provide a sufficient supporting rigidity for the functional parts, regardless of its reinforcing rigidity.
The conventional structure further encounters the following disadvantage during the factory production. Namely, at the time when the closable member 1 is mounted on the vehicle body, the reinforcing member 4 to which the functional parts 2 are mounted has already to be firmly connected to the member 1. Thus, in order to improve the workability, heat-hardening type adhesive material having a high hardening speed is often used to establish the connection between the closable member 1 and the functional parts 2. However, such a type of adhesive material requires heating step to be carried out before the assembly of the vehicle body, by which the production process cannot readily be simplified.